


Tattoo

by AyashiTetsuko132



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Marauders, Modern Marauders (Harry Potter), Recreational Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-11-09 07:31:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17997575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AyashiTetsuko132/pseuds/AyashiTetsuko132
Summary: Harry knew that his late father had a tattoo. What he did not know was the story behind it.Set in the same Alternate Universe as Tricked.





	Tattoo

**Author's Note:**

> Happened about the same time as Ginny beginning her friendship with Tom.

Harry climbed up the staircase in the Black family’s Georgian style home, eyes looking up to his destination at the top floor. Still wearing his school uniform, the boy swung his rucksack eagerly whenever he stopped to take a breathe.

The fourteen-year-old eventually arrived at the top floor, where another small set of stairs led up to his godfather’s studio in the attic.

The studio was the equal of a man’s cave (or World War II bunker) for Sirius Black. Its door was almost always closed. In principal, Harry was allowed to be in the room, but he was told to avoid entering it when the door was completely shut. Because it would mean that the gentleman was busy concentrating on his work --writing songs, recording tracks, or even simply daydreaming for ideas. He should not be disturbed at these precious hours, even in the case of fire and earthquake. And alien attacks.

However, that afternoon, the slightly opened door gave away signals to the boy to get on the stairs and come in.

Once he did, his eyes widened when he found Sirius and his best friend Remus Lupin inside.

(Nothing dirty happened, by the way, he just did not expect a guest.)

“Harry! Come on in!” Sirius waved excitedly while Remus turned towards the door’s direction.

“Well, Harry. We meet again,” Remus greeted. Harry responded with a nervous laugh.

Remus was a lifelong friend of Sirius who had recently begun working as an English teacher at Harry’s school --a rather awkward situation, to be frank.

He, Sirius, and Harry’s late father James Potter used to be in a band together. Both the band and James himself were no longer around, but the gentlemen still routinely hang out together. This was where things got a little complicated for Harry, as he was often unsure when to treat Remus as a teacher, and as an uncle-like figure.

At the moment the two were sitting in front of a mixing equipment, with bottles of beer, a bowl of peanuts, and a CD between them. It seemed like Remus had been there for a while, judging from the contents of the bottle.

“I was just showing Remus here that I was, once again, correct,” Sirius began.

He picked up the CD that was in front of them. “I have found yet another hitmaker. When will their debut album coming up? Next month. And what company represents them? The Black Dog Records, of course.” He put it back down with a smug look on his face.

Remus sighed. “It seems like next Friday’s dinner is on me, Harry.”

“Nice. Congrats,” Harry muttered, putting down his bag before throwing himself on a sofa.

Once the boy was comfortable on his seat, he took a moment to take in his surrounding, observing every single detail in the studio. He did not come to this part of the house very often, so it was always a treat to see the inside.

In front of him, where Sirius and Remus sat, was a complicated mixing equipment which Harry never bothered to ask for details --the name of the things, what it does. Beyond that was a space to, well, play music. Completed with a baby grand piano and other instruments.

Harry’s favourite part of the room was his godfather’s collection of photographs from the past.

Most of them were hung on the studio’s wall, with the largest being a poster of The Marauders’ best-selling album _Mischief_. The album cover featured an image on two sets of footsteps on a sand. Nothing about this image seemed to be out of the ordinary, until you noticed that at the corner of the image, the two sets of footsteps were so close together … with one set being opened wide while the other was standing between them.

There were also photos of Sirius, James, and Remus in various situations. The one that Harry really liked featured the three of them leaning on the graffiti-filled wall of a club. They all had long, messy hairs back then; their T-shirt and jeans also seemed to be at least one size too small. But Harry loved the smug, unbeatable vibe that they gave away in that picture.

There was also another photo of them in a restaurant, sitting together before meals. This one was also another one of Harry’s favourite, as it featured his mother Lily, sitting right next to James. There was a man in that photo whose face was covered with a large X symbol, as if someone did not want him to be preserved in memory. Harry knew that the blacked-out man was Peter Pettigrew, the band’s former manager and ex-friend.

Harry stopped at this particular picture. His attention was focussed on his father’s arms, which were crossed on the dining table.

It was half-covered by the T-shirt that he was wearing but Harry could see that there was a tattoo on James’s upper right arm. The image was not very clear on this one, so he moved on to another photo, which showed his father sitting behind the drumset. The photo was taken from his side and he had taken off his top at that moment, revealing the tattoo in all its glory.

It was of the head of a stag, strategically placed just above his elbow. The stag’s antler was complicated and lengthy, going all the way to James’s shoulder. But the best part of the stag’s features was its eyes: It seemed to stare into something that commoners could not see, like the future or the inside of someone’s heart.

Harry had always known about the existence of this tattoo, but he had never given it a second thought.

“Sirius. What’s the story behind my Dad’s tattoo?”

Both Sirius and Remus turned their heads towards Harry’s direction. “His tattoo?”

“Yeah. The one with the stag.”

Because if there was anything that Harry knew for certain about his late father, who was kidnapped and shot by terrorist group abroad when he was an infant, was that there was _always_ a story.

Back in high school, James was that person who would climb up the school fence when he was late, in order to avoid being seen by teachers. But one day, a teacher caught him in action. Not knowing where to go, instead of climbing down and facing whatever punishment that awaited him, he decided to leap towards the teacher himself. Causing the teacher to faint and break his bone. Landing himself in even greater trouble.

 _What’s so hard about skipping school? Why insist on coming when you’d be late anyway?_ Sirius had said back then.

 _Come on_ , James replied. _Any day spent without seeing Lily Evans is a day wasted_.

James was also the person who kept a small bucket tied with rope outside of the window of his flat. Whenever he was hungry, but too lazy to walk downstairs, he would open the window and shout at the Chinese food stall next door. The boy who worked at the stall would show up with his meal, then put it inside the bucket for James to pull into his flat. The bucket would then return downstairs with some cash.

And yes, James once abandoned his car in the middle of a traffic jam because he saw a dark-haired boy sitting by himself in the middle of the rain, under the awning of a shop that did nothing to keep himself dry. In addition to giving him his umbrella and some money for food, James also sat there for almost an hour to accompany the poor orphan, while his own car was being towed away in front of his eyes.

So Harry knew that there had to be a story.

Sirius and Remus stared at each other. “Well, there was definitely a story …,” Remus said slowly, waiting for his friend’s reaction.

“Which was so good … Even your mother never knew about this.” Sirius seemed to struggle to contain his laughter.

This only triggered Harry’s curiosity even more. The boy leaned his body forward, trying to get as close as possible to his godfather without leaving the sofa. “What? Why? How come?”

“Well, there are elements in the story that …”

Harry sighed, leaning back to the sofa. “Involved alcohol?”

Sirius snickered, followed by a soft laughter by Remus. “Obviously.”

“But why wouldn’t Mum know about this?”

“There’s something else, other than alcohol …”

“Oh, man. What else? Drugs?”

Sirius looked like he was about to tell the boy something exciting until Remus gave him a sharp, warning look.

“Oh! … _Oh_. Um. No, no. That one was bad, Harry. Off limit. Don’t do them,” Sirius warned, waving his index finger.

“So what happened? Did someone die or something? Was that a tribute tattoo?” The boy started to lose his patience.

Sirius took a deep breath, fixing his sitting position. “In a way, yeah. It was some kind of a tribute.”

“It’s a beautiful story, though! I think Harry should know,” Remus added.

“Yes, yes. He should. Alright, Harry. Listen up.”

The year was 1988, years before Harry’s birth. The Marauders had secured a record contract for almost four years and produced two albums, but things had not been really well for them. They were on the brink of having it terminated when their new album _Mischief_ suddenly exploded in the market. Their single _I solemnly swear (that I’m up to no good)_ hit the number one spot and became an instant classic, even more after it was chosen to be the jingle for a Butterbeer TV commercial.

Most of Harry’s schoolmates were not born yet when all that happened, but they were all able to sing along to the song.

 _It’s that old people’s song that you don’t feel embarrassed about_ , Ginny once said to Harry. Sirius had tears in his eyes when the boy told him about it.

The single was so successful that for the first time ever, their record company was even willing to invest in an international tour. The United States was picked as their destination, and The Mischief Managed Tour was launched.

But it did not mean that the band was able to enjoy the rock-and-roll lifestyle on the road. They were being given just enough to rent a rusty old Volkswagen Kombi throughout the tour, with an even more minimal budget for accommodation. There were times when the band had to sleep in the car; even when they were able to afford a hotel room, the four of them had to share a bed.

 _So much for having a groupie_ , Sirius repeatedly grumbled to himself as he was sandwiched between James and Peter, while the two were having a snore fest.

The group was driving along a state highway in rural Minnesota in one fine spring night when The Incident happened.

Peter was the only sober person in that car, thus he was given the responsibility to be behind the driver's seat. Despite his sound mind and lengthy preparation, the man did not feel entirely convinced that he had taken the right turn earlier. _Trees, trees everywhere! It's like we're in a forest_ , he commented. _Is this even the right way?_

 _Just follow the road_ , Remus assured him. He was sober enough to sit beside Peter and help him with the map, though his face was also bright red. Unlike Peter, he was certain that they had taken the right turn earlier.

Meanwhile, the back seat was dominated by James and Sirius, who were both drunk enough to wear their jumper as a headdress and sing about a frying pan.

Suddenly, James stopped his singing and leaned towards the front seat. “I need to pee.”

“No! It’s late, we need to get to the hotel ASAP! And I think we’re lost!” Peter said.

“Then I will pee here.”

“No! Alright, alright … I’ll stop!”

The car halted with a loud screech. The door in the back opened, and there was a loud thud when James missed his step and fell to the grass. Completely oblivious to his friend’s situation, Sirius moved along to follow him outside. “I’m coming with you, James! I’m coming … To the moon … In ... Frying paaaan.”

Remus and Peter watched in silence as the two men walked away from the car into the trees. The latter then gave away a loud sigh. “Luckily there’s you, Remus! I can never imagine ...:”

But his opponent suddenly opened his door and jumped out of the car. “I need to pee as well!”

Peter slammed his head onto the steering wheel.

 

*

 

The next minutes, the three friends stood in a line at the opening of the forest, relieving themselves. James was the first to finish, and he was turning around to return to the car when he suddenly stopped. “Did you hear that?”

“Yeah, my pee sounds like the rain.” Sirius chuckled.

“No, no! There’s something else!”

Sirius and Lupin turned towards James as he put his hands near his ears, trying to listen better. The man then looked as if he finally managed to track whatever thing he was looking for. “It’s over there!”

He turned around again and ran into the forest. Both Sirius and Remus blinked in silence until Sirius decided to follow suit.

“W-wait! Wait for me!” Remus yelled, struggling with his trousers.

The two gentlemen then ran into the forest, trying to catch up with their friend, who was already stopping in the midst of it. James was staring into something on the ground, and his two friends immediately went sober once they realised what he had seen.

There was a hole in the ground, about as deep as a really tall adult. There were leaves being spread around the hole, as if someone had tried to cover it up earlier. And inside the hole was a little fawn, crying over for help.

“Poor thing!” Sirius yelled.

“I-is this a trap?” Remus responded.

“We need to help him!” Before anyone can stop him, James was already jumping into the hole.

“Oi. I was just trying to warn you,” Remus said, getting on his knees. “Careful, this must be a trap.”

“Don’t worry, it’s safe …,” James muttered. The fawn jumped at the sight of him, and was trying to ran away to no avail. “Oh, he’s scared. Come here, little one. I’m not going to harm you.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t stand. Your height scares it,” Remus said.

James then crouched. “Alright. Come here, lovely.”

The fawn stopped trying to run. Despite its whimpering, the creature eventually allowed James to touch and hold him. The man then rose up slowly, and signaled to his friends to help him. “Can you please get him?”

Agreeing, Remus then reached out his hand to grab the fawn. Lifting the animal slowly, James then handed it over to Remus while Sirius continued to stare in awe.  “It’s real! It’s the real thing!”

“Of course,” Remus answered, cradling the fawn in his hug. “I wonder where the parents are.”

Once he got over his initial shock, Sirius bent down to make all sort of baby talks to the animal. He was trying all sort of baby talks to the animal when he noticed that it kept on trying to pull its leg away. He reached out to it and noticed something glistening on it. “It’s bleeding!”

“Really? Didn’t catch that earlier,” Remus said.

“Let’s get it back to the car, then. Meanwhile, help me get out? No plan to stay here tonight, by the way,” James shouted.

Sirius then pulled him out of the hole while Remus continued to cradle the fawn in his arm. The three gentlemen then walked back to the car, where they were being greeted by Peter’s hysterical scream.

“What took you … GOODNESS, IS THAT A CAT? SHOO! NO! YOU KNOW I’M ALLERGIC!”

“You scared him!” Remus yelled.

“It’s a fawn, genius, why would they have a cat in a place like this,” Sirius muttered, opening the door of the car for Remus to sit in. Meanwhile, James came in from the backside of the car with a box of first aid kit.

“Here it is! Okay, so we begin with cleaning the wound ....” He scrambled the inside of the box.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Remus stared suspiciously.

“That’s the perk of being engaged to a doctor. She taught me everything … Oops, sorry! Must have hurt!” James said when the fawn rebelled in his care.

“You’re incompetent!”

“Can you at least hold him tighter?”

After a painful minute of cleaning and dressing the wound, the fawn was finally good to go. With a relieved sigh, Remus handed the fawn back to James. “Now what?”

“Back to Mum and Dad, of course,” James replied, making eye contact with the creature. “Now, little one, you will be just fine. We would love to take you with us! But …” He lifted his shoulder nonchalantly.

The man then walked back to the direction of the forest. Once he was close enough to it, he crouched down and placed the fawn on the ground.

At first the creature stumbled, but then it began to gain better control of its legs. Within a few tense seconds, it was finally able to walk towards the trees.

The band members actually cheered when the fawn was nearing the entrance of the forest.

Just moments before it walked in, as if it was saying goodbye, the fawn suddenly stopped and turned its head towards James.

Everyone was stunned. Sirius, who was standing the closest to James, took a step forward to check on his best friend.

His eyes then widened when he saw that his best friend was standing there with a facial expression that was the combination of fear, worry, and sadness. He looked just like a man who had just been told about the foreseeable future, and learned that there was something bad in it. That is going to happen either to himself or ...

“James. You okay?”

The man bowed his head down. When he lifted it up again, it was as if the past few minutes never happened.

“Alright, gentlemen … Let’s rock this tour!”

 

*

 

Peter was just too happy to be able to continue the trip again, so the next minutes found their car moving along the highway in a worrying speed.

“You know, Peter …,” James leaned himself on the front seat. “If you really want to pee, you can stop, you know. No judgement.”

“James, I think I have made it clear. Not only that we are behind schedule, there is also a possibility that we are lost,” Peter answered through gritted teeth. “I’m not stopping again for whatever …”

His words trailed off as the car sped past a police car, which was parked at the side of the street.

“Shit,” Peter muttered.

“Oh, shit,” Remus responded, sounding almost cheerful.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Peter began to get hysterical again.

“Shiiiit,” Sirius chipped in, sounding more cheerful than necessary.

The police car, which had been perfectly quiet in its parking spot, suddenly had its siren turned on.

“Now that’s some shit,” said James, failing to control his laughter as the police car began to move.

“Please tell me he’s not looking for us!” Peter yelled.

A voice suddenly boomed through the air. “To the driver of red Volkswagen Kombi … Please stop driving and park your car immediately.”

Remus lifted up both of his hands cheerfully. “That’s us!”

“Shit. Shit!” Peter cursed, but he really had no choice but to stop the car anyway.

As soon as they stopped moving, so was the police car behind them. The inside of the Volkswagen Kombi was as quiet as a graveyard when the policeman got off his car. Peter seemed to be the only who realised how deep in trouble they were, as the rest of the group were struggling to suppressed their laughter.

The policeman knocked their window. Taking a deep breath, Peter rolled his window down. “Good evening, sir.”

“Evening, sir. May I have a look at your licence?” said the policeman, his thick moustache moved up and down when he spoke.

Unable to look at the policeman’s eyes, Peter handed his international driving licence, expecting nothing but the best.

“Are you on business trip, sir? Or vacation?”

“Ah … Business trip. We are in a band, and we are on tour,” Peter answered, faking a jolly smile.

The policeman did not say anything, but decided to take a peek inside the car. James, Sirius, and Remus all sat unnaturally straight as they struggle to maintain a serious face.

To the trained eyes, this only made them look even more suspicious. “Gentlemen, I need to ask you all to come out of the car.”

 _Shit!_ Peter mouthed silently as the band members silently made their move.

The policeman then made them stand in line with their hands behind their head, as he patted their body, in search for something that was not supposed to be there. They all passed brilliantly and everyone was able to breath freely when the policeman headed towards their car.

He started out by opening the door to the front seat, checking the seat and what was underneath it. Sirius’s eyes widened and he started to get fidgety.

“James,” he whispered. “James!”

The man gave away a questioning look.

 _The baggage_ , Sirius mouthed. _The baggage!_

He made all sorts of wild gestures with his fingers, mimicking anything from a smoking person to a growing tree. It took James a while to understand what he was trying to say. He then turned his head towards the car, and stared in horror as the policeman opened the baggage.

James was just about to say something to distract the policeman, but The Incident happened so fast.

First there were galloping sounds, then came the sweeping movement from the side of the road.

The policeman screamed as he lost his footing on the ground.

Staring in horror, the band members and their manager then immediately ran to the back of the car. Peeking from the car’s behind, they all held their breath as they witnessed a gigantic stag dragging the policeman towards the other side of the road.

The policeman screamed for help, and the band members all ran towards his direction, though honestly nobody knew what to do in such situation. But luckily, the policeman’s clothes, which had been stuck on the stag’s antler, were finally torn apart, enabling him to break free.

As he fell to the ground, most of the band members gathered around him, while James continued to run to catch the stag.

But the animal was too fast. He soon lost track of it.

 

*

 

“So … That's the reason why Mum never knew what the tattoo meant,” Harry muttered, staring into his own feet.

He then lifted his head to stare at his godfather and his best friend. “It’s because the tattoo was meant to celebrate the night he almost got arrested … For carrying weed.”

The boy really did not know whether to feel proud or ashamed of his father at the moment.

At this rate Remus was laughing so hard that he almost choked on his own spit. Sirius had been laughing too, and was wiping tears off his eyes when he said. “Well … that’s what he led people to believe … But I had been friend with him forever, Harry. I know that’s not the full story.”

He sighed. “Okay, so what …”

Sirius took the last gulp of his beer, lifting his index finger up, as if signalling Harry to wait until he was done. “Think again, Harry. There’s a very important part in the story.”

The boy snickered. “Your pee sounded like the rain?”

Remus bursted out laughing again, but Sirius seemed to have gotten over the mood already. “The part after that. When your father released the fawn … When he suddenly went all quiet and strange.”

Harry waited until Sirius finished his story.

“My theory is that … At that moment, he received some kind of a hunch. Like, a fleeting emotion or something. Because after the policeman incident … Everything was back to normal. Except for two things: He stopped drinking and smoking weed. And he spent a lot of time thinking,” Sirius went on.

“He only got back to his usual self when we got to Los Angeles, the last city of our tour. He asked for a recommended tattoo artist, and … _et voila_. The stag happened,” he added.

“Commemorating a literal stag night,” Remus chuckled.

“I think we talked about this before, Remus … After the tattoo, James seemed completely normal. But that was actually when he began making changes in his life,” Sirius continued.

“Ah, yes, yes! So when we got back to London, Harry, that was actually ... the beginning of the end. For our band. Well, I think you know what happened,” Remus jumped in. He referred to the moment when the band members discovered that Peter had been stealing their revenue all along; that they were supposed to earn much more than what they actually received. 

Sirius nodded solemnly. “None of us was ready for what happened ... Except for James.”

Harry leaned forward again. “Okay … How …”

“Well, once he arrived in London, Lily was mad at him, of course. Coming back from America with a massive tattoo like that! But then even she noticed that improvement in James’s personality … I guess that’s why she never bothered to ask about it. And just sort of ... Accept it,” Sirius explained.

“James had always had a very strong sense of justice. He was really the activist type,” Remus added. “He was a devoted volunteer for The Order of The Phoenix, doing fundraising campaigns and stuff. But right before our band broke up, he actually applied for a fulltime job there, as a project officer.”

The Order of The Phoenix was the name of an international aid agency where Lily, and eventually James, worked for. It worked in conflict zones to provide healthcare for refugees and citizens alike. 

“So, of the three of us, he was the one who was prepared. When the band broke, he already had another job, while I had to go back to school,” Remus concluded.

“And I was left depressed and confused,” Sirius muttered.

“After that, you came into their life. So your parents got married, and James completely moved on from band life,” Remus smiled.

 _Towards the end of their own life_ , Harry thought. But he did not dare to say this out loud.

Sirius waved his bottle aimlessly. “So, yeah, it was an absurd night, and nobody knew for sure what James saw when he let go of the fawn. But my belief is that … He was somehow inspired. To better his life. To have some … Stability. While, at the same time, doing more to help people.”

He then placed his bottle back on the table with some finality in his movement. “His tattoo was meant to remind him of that decision.” 

For the first time since the story began, Harry found himself smiling at the memory of his father.

He had always known James for being a brave, obnoxious man with the heart of gold, based on what his closest friends were able to tell him. But the boy never really understood about his sources of inspiration; the things that moved him to make all these decisions.

Deep inside his heart, he was wondering if he would be able to go that far to protect those that he loved.

**END**

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> As always, I created a playlist for this particular fanfic. This is how I imagine the band would sound like:
> 
> 1\. Sex Pistols' Anarchy in the UK  
> 2\. Franz Ferdinand's Do You Want To  
> 3\. The Clash's London Calling  
> 4\. Ramones's Blitzkreig Bop  
> 5\. Sex Pistols' Submission


End file.
